We Must Protect Our Angels Abroad

Peace Corps volunteers are America’s angels abroad. These unique volunteers are some of our best diplomats. They travel to the ends of the Earth to spread the message of democracy in lands far, far away. Sometimes they work alone, and they help in remote regions of the world, areas where most of us could not even locate with Google Maps. They help small villages with sanitation and lack of water, for instance, and they do it all with great passion.

These volunteers are called to serve. However, we must serve and protect these volunteers as well. Sometimes bad things happen to Peace Corps volunteers overseas. If so, America must help with medical services. We must help with care and counseling if they are assaulted in a foreign country. That is why Congress passed the Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act of 2011.

But Congress must continue to advocate for victims in the Peace Corps. We need to make sure that our volunteers with service-related medical conditions and injuries are cared for and compensated both in the field and when they return home to America. We must protect these angels abroad. After all, they are ambassadors to the world from America.

And that is just the way it is.